"We have been fortunate enough to have worked over the past nine months with Francis Moran and Associates to deliver virtual CMO services for our company, and so far it has been highly effective. With this relationship, we get access to a level of experience and expertise which would be unaffordable to us if we were to hire a full-time equivalent." Dave McIlhagga, Founder and CEO

"When I hired Francis Moran to lead our marketing efforts in 2011, I had very high expectations. We needed to completely rebuild our marketing from the ground up. Francis and his team not only met those high expectations but exceeded them. He brought a very high level of strategic thinking, professionalism and creativity to our organization that will be felt for many years to come in our quest to build a successful IT company."
Marty Hilsenteger, Founder and CEO

We Bring Technology to Market.

I don’t have an MBA and I haven’t partaken of any executive leadership programs. Whatever insights I offer on this blog about group dynamics and management arise from what you might call qualitative participant observation.

In other words, I take note of what helps, and what hinders, when it comes to getting __________ done by a given deadline, to whatever standard or benchmarks meet with the general approval of the stakeholders involved.

What do I consider to be one of the most important tools for getting _________ done?

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Last month’s contents were newsworthy and informative. Leading the pack was Maurice Smith’s post on the ultimate marketing challenge followed by Leo Valiquette’s piece on phone etiquette. As always, we had some great contributions from our guest bloggers on presentation skills, measuring Facebook contest ROI, the neurobiology of marketing, and filing patent applications, among others.

In case you missed any of it, here is a handy recap of our posts, as ranked by the enthusiasm of our readers:

Doug Kessler says that home-run content doesn’t happen by accident and that it always starts with a great plan. Since marketers aren’t often the ones producing the content, it’s incredibly important to communicate clearly in content briefs. Besides the usual stuff nascent to all, Doug goes a step further and identifies seven elements to turn good into great.

A serial entrepreneur based out of Silicon Valley, Rick Marini hears from many young startup enthusiasts and how they want to build a multibillion-dollar company. But before jumping in, he urges you to consider whether or not you actually are an entrepreneur or just someone after a piece of the limelight. In this post, Rick outlines key attributes of a successful entrepreneur and whether or not you have what it takes to make it down this tough road.

A little over five years ago, my attention was grabbed by an online news article that talked about a new incubation program being launched at the University of Waterloo for student-founded companies. Dubbed the “dormcubator,” a name that thankfully never really caught on, the program would see the university convert an existing student residence into an incubator for new companies, with company teams applying for residence and receiving a host of support and mentoring services.

I thought it was a brilliant idea and immediately reached out to then-program coordinator Sean Van Koughnett and offered whatever help I could from 550 kilometres away. My PR agency became an early sponsor of the program, and I travelled down to what was eventually called the Velocity residence a few times that next year to put on PR and marketing workshops and help mentor some of that first year’s teams. That level of involvement proved difficult to sustain over long distance but I never lost my enthusiasm for what Velocity was doing, and have kept a close eye on the program ever since as it has grown far beyond that original residence-based program.

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You know how to measure the ROI of a PPC ad campaign: You can see the real revenue outcome from each ad and each click.

You’re not going to see direct sales from a Facebook contest, but it’s one of the most cost-effective ways to use social media to generate leads for your business. And by targeting your contest effectively, you’ll be able to make sure that every lead is actually interested in your business. I’ll explain how shortly.

In this article I’ll show you the different returns on investment to expect from running a Facebook contest and how to achieve them.

1. Sales leads

The most powerful return on investment that a Facebook contest provides for a business is new leads. Every person who enters your Facebook contest gives you their email and contact details, making them a new lead to sell to. To maximize new emails and leads, you need to maximize entries. You can do this by making the barrier to entry as low as possible. Do this by asking only for name and email in order to enter. Minimizing your entry form to just one field will make it as fast and easy as possible to enter, maximizing your entry rate.

How do you make sure every lead is actually interested in your business?

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Previous Posts:

Don’t let your phone skills atrophy

I got a call last week from my incumbent Canadian telecom services provider eager to justify its existence to me. We all get these calls from time to time. One of those “how can we serve you better” calls [...]

How long, really, do you have to file a patent application?

“Don’t disclose your invention or you’ll lose your patent rights!” This is the type of advice that you will typically get in a coffee shop, or over a beer around 5:30pm in the evening before you head home. Is this true? [...]

When a good presentation isn’t good enough

I deal with lots of executives who are good presenters — in some cases, really good presenters. But, they choose to work with a presentation coach because they want to become remarkable presenters [...]

It’s Summertime…and the Networking is Easy? | THE MERRAINE BRAIN : [...] In fact, summer is perhaps one of the times least used to network, yet at the same time has shown to be the most productive time to network. People tend to be in a brighter mood compared to during the gloomy winters-especially where I am from in England! Networking needs to be fun and not approached as another chore, like mowing the lawn. (http://francis-moran.com/marketing-strategy/social-media-strategy-why-meeting-in-the-real-world-matt...) [...]